What Is The Best Way To Generate Leads In The UK?

This is a question I have been asked on various occasions at trade shows and events so I thought it best to address this in my blog. I have over 20 years of experience in marketing and sales with international companies like Disney and Nickelodeon and have an extensive knowledge of selling and generating leads in the UK for my mentoring services and my ecommerce platform Gloople.

The first thing to consider when generating leads in the UK is to find out where your audience is spending their time. Take your business to them. A great way to do this is to hold an online competition. For my Social Media clients, we hold one campaign per month where, for example, we will offer a £100 gift voucher for one person to spend with that said company. Don’t know how or what company to use? Try Wildfire. I have used this company for over 4 years and found it has worked best for holding Facebook competitions. This is a great way to build interest around your brand and most importantly, generate leads. Wildfire allows you to choose what information you would like the user to enter. Always ask for a name and email address so you can contact them outside of the Facebook competition. Remember, they wouldn’t have entered if they weren’t interested in the brand.

On the topic of Social Media, there is no better way to connect with your consumers than on Social Networks. Use these networks to release your information e.g. blogs. A ‘retweet’ of a blog may be picked up by someone outside of your circle where they then research you and connect with you on your website. If this happens to you then congratulations; you just generated another lead. There are so many different touch points you can use to find you online customer, why not try the latest “Amplification” tool called IFTTT to push out all of your information via one easy to use platform, saving you time.

Social Media can be hit and miss. Some weeks you may find a lot of people connecting with you and other weeks you will only find the odd mention. Be careful of social networks like Twitter which are public, open and unrestricted. Turn this (debatable) negative into a positive. If someone mentions you in a pessimistic fashion, address this straight away. Recently, one of my clients received various tweets regarding one of their products being out of stock. You must reply in a timely manner and always ask for a contact email, so you can speak to them privately to always offer a personal service.

Email marketing is a great way to connect with your consumers and build your database. I recently ran a workshop and I asked two of the attendees how they found out about the event as neither me nor the other two presenters knew where they had come from. They told me that they were forwarded my monthly email newsletter from a friend of theirs in China, who met me at a trade show. Not only did they enjoy the workshop, but they could be possible consultancy clients in the future and I wouldn’t have reached them if it wasn’t for the initial lead passing on the information.  Unsure what email marketing tool to use? Look into Mailchimp for this, I have used it for over three years and have only positive comments regarding their system.

As I am a professional speaker, I hold a keynote seminar for at least one trade show per month. I use this platform to offer my possible client something in return for their contact details e.g. my complimentary 7 day ecourse  to all of my seminar attendees but if they would like this, they need to give me their contact details. This is how I have built over 70% of my database.

Not getting the results you want from your email marketing? Pick up your phone. Some people may not be social media savvy and would much prefer an old school phone call, which leads to a face-to-face meeting. This is a great way to build long-term relationships.

Lastly, you must have brand and message consistency and place as much information on various social networks as possible. To see if the social networks have your company name available, go to NameChk.

Always keep your followers on their toes. Up-to-date information will be better received than old news. If you want to build your database and generate leads, follow the trends; find out what’s hot in your sector and connect with influencers.

How do you generate leads in the UK?